Beauty

Beans, Beautiful Beans

There is no end to the miracles that a morning coffee can perform and now those super-beans arenâ€™t just waking us up, theyâ€™re giving us a healthy glow too!Sit back, grab your cuppa and be amazed by the power of coffee.

Meet Alison Shaw, the genius who combined two of lifeâ€™s greatest pleasures â€“ massage and coffee! A Mt Tamborine based massage therapist and owner of Ripple Massage, Alison let us in on how the match-made-in-heaven came to be. If you thought drinking your morning coffee was essential in your day, Alison will open your eyes to the beauty benefits of those truly miraculous (and delicious) little beans.

Q&A with Alison Shaw of Ripple Massage:

What are the health benefits of using coffee infused skin-care products?

Coffee is usually associated with waking people up in the morning, but it can also perk up your skin. The caffeine in coffee has a number of benefits for your skin, from treating redness and inflammation, to reducing the appearance of under-eye circles, to getting rid of cellulite. By incorporating caffeine into your skin care routine, you can reveal evenly toned, smooth skin all over your body

How did you discover coffee as a tool for massage?

I love coffee and I also love massage so it was a natural to put the two together! I went up to Merlo in Brisbane and chatted to them about what I wanted to do. They sent me away with a couple of big bags of various grinds of their coffee, and I started experimenting using other Ripple products. After a couple of days I had come up with an amazing secret way to infuse the coffee into our massage oil, a beautiful coffee face mask and a coffee scrub.

Are the coffee beans used in beauty products different to those we drink?

No they are the same! They are freshly ground to get the optimum effects from the coffee, and we use different grinds for our different Ripple coffee massage products, but the coffee is essentially the same.

How much coffee needs to be used and how regularly to optimise the health benefits?

We recommend that you do a full body scrub at least once a month to maintain your skinâ€™s health and to gently remove the dead skin cells.

Is coffee appropriate for all skin types?

Yes from dry skin to oily, these skin care products are perfect for all skin types.

Scrub Up at Home

Get your coffee working harder for you with these freshly roasted beauty secrets and locally sourced products.

Uncover Your Healthy Glow

What: Haven Coffee Scrub | 100gHow Much: $5Where: Available from Haven Espresso, Stafford HeightsHow it works: Youâ€™ve got sparkle, itâ€™s just hidden beneath that dry layer of skin youâ€™ve kept hidden under your winter woolies. Exfoliation removes these dead surface skin cells to reveal the newer, healthier, glowing skin underneath. Coffee grinds are a great scrubber for both the body and the face thanks to their anti-inflammatory and odour absorbing properties. It there anything coffee canâ€™t do?!Â Haven Coffee Scrub is made from recycled coffee grinds at Haven Espresso. So you can drink your coffee, then smear yourself with it too!

Reduce Cellulite

What: Verity Coffee SoapHow Much: from $5Where: Available at selected Queensland cafes or at veritysoaps.comHow it works: Research shows that applying products containing caffeine to the skin can reduced the size of cellulite cells by up to 17%. By massaging and rubbing your problem dimply areas with natural soaps containing coffee, fat cells are dehydrated and broken up and the lumps and bumps of cellulite decrease. The end result is smoother skin. We love Verity Coffee Soap because it says no to nasty palm oil, fillers, dyes, colours and perfumes and yes to natural and vegetable oils. Pass us the coffee soap!

Prevent Sun Damage

What:Alpha-H Firming Body Therapy | 200mlHow Much: $51.95Where:Â alpha-h.comHow it Works: Coffee is a natural sunscreen. Antioxidants in beauty products containing coffee and caffeine can prevent ultraviolet damage, or repair it if it has already occurred. But coffee doesnâ€™t stop there â€“ it will also reduce the dark circles under your eyes. Applying caffeine under your eyes will reduce puffiness and inflammation and reduce the build-up of blood under your eyes which contributes to dark shadows. Gold Coast owned, operated and manufactured, Alpha-H products promise a higher-than-usual potency to ensure a fast and real change in skin quality.

Blitz the free radicals

Â What: Frank Body Original Body ScrubHow Much: $14.95Where:frankbody.comHow it works: Coffee is bursting with antioxidants that target damaging free radicals, the key culprit of many problematic skin conditions. It also has the same PH as skin, which means it will not strip any natural oils or leave skin feeling dry. Frank Bodyâ€™s most popular product doesnâ€™t stop at just coffee though, you can lather yourself in a variety of mint, cacao and coconut varieties. Youâ€™ll smell good enough to eat.

About Emma Heron

If I wasnâ€™t a writer, Iâ€™d be dancing at the Moulin Rouge. Theyâ€™d put me in the back, but Iâ€™d be giving it a real crack. I pretend to understand wine lists, but really I might as well just close my eyes and point. I donâ€™t see this as a problem, because Iâ€™m a first-time Mum so really any wine will do.Â I liked my cat until I realised he was more demanding than an actual child.